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Kyle Neddenriep and Carrie Ritchie

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Open practice

Thursday’s practices for teams in the Midwest Regional at Lucas Oil Stadium are free and open to the public. Here is the schedule:Oregon, noon Michigan State, 1 p.m. Louisville, 2:10 p.m. Duke, 3:10 p.m.

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An Indiana University basketball game would have been best for local ticket brokers, but Louisville and Michigan State aren’t bad.

Brokers say they expect tickets to this weekend’s NCAA Midwest Regional at Lucas Oil Stadium to sell out, but they won’t be as expensive on the resale market as they would have been with IU playing here.

Louisville faces Oregon and Duke plays Michigan State on Friday. The winners play Sunday for a berth in the Final Four in Atlanta.

“It could’ve been much worse,” said Mike Peduto, a partner at Circle City Tickets in Indianapolis. “If Louisville and Michigan State both got beat, the seats would be practically worthless.”

Renny Harrison, owner of FanFare Tickets in Carmel, said Louisville “is the best consolation prize possible” for ticket brokers. But IU would have been a bonanza.

“I think ticket prices would probably be about double what they are right now,” Harrison said. “There was a lot of anticipation that IU would be here. The demand dropped when IU was sent East.”

Peduto said tickets are selling for about 20 percent to 25 percent below what they were before NCAA pairings were announced March 17. Several IU fans snapped up tickets to this weekend’s regional, believing the Hoosiers would be sent to the Midwest Regional. Instead, IU is in the East Regional and will play Thursday in Washington, D.C.

Harrison said he was getting “lots of action” on Monday, mostly from Louisville. Ticket prices on Stubhub.com on Monday afternoon ranged from $95 for upper level seats to $1,800 for floor seats.

“It’s going really well, actually,” Harrison said. “Most of it is Louisville, some from Michigan State. I think most Louisville people plan to be here for both days.”

The configuration of the stadium will seat 36,000 fans, with the court placed on the south end of the building. In 2009, the court was in the middle of the stadium in preparation for the Final Four setup the following year.

On Monday afternoon, about 4,000 tickets remained on the primary market for Friday and 4,000 for Sunday, according to spokesman John Dedman of the Indiana Sports Corp.

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“I think we’ll come close to selling it out if not selling it out,” Dedman said. “It’s a fairly apples-to-apples comparison as 2009, when Louisville and Michigan State were here. We had 36,000 here then and there was a lot of red and green in the crowd.

“We never got to the point where we were expecting to have IU here for sure. And it doesn’t hurt that IU will be playing on Thursday instead of Friday. Fans can watch IU on TV and still come to the games here.”

Louisville and its large fan base showed up in droves for the 2009 regional at Lucas Oil Stadium, making the two-hour drive. Schuyler Schmitt, president of the Indianapolis chapter of the Louisville Alumni Association, said about 12,000 to 15,000 attended that regional and a similar, if not larger, crowd is expected this week.

“People I haven’t talked to in years are coming out of the woodwork asking about tickets,” Schmitt said. “The demand has been crazy. Louisville fans will travel wherever, but with us having the No. 1 seed and Indianapolis so close, it’s going to be a huge crowd.”

Michigan State alum Kurt Melin was in the crowd that day “surrounded by Louisville fans.” Melin, a member of Michigan State’s Central Indiana Alumni Association, said he’s unsure if he’ll watch the game inside Lucas Oil Stadium or at the Fox and Hound in Castleton, a meeting spot for Spartan fans.

“I’m still looking (for tickets),” he said. “As much as I love State, I’m not sure if I can afford to drop more than $200. I want to sit in a good seat, not sit in the nosebleeds.”